Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 1 August. Top stories Donald Trump has fired his communications director Anthony Scaramucci after just 10 days in the job. A statement from the White House said: "Mr Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best." The shock move follows a turbulent series of media appearances over the last week, capped by a foul-mouthed tirade to a New Yorker journalist last Thursday, in which he called then-chief of staff Reince Priebus "a fucking paranoid schizophrenic". The New York Times reported the decision to remove Scaramucci came at the request of Kelly, who had been appointed Trump's chief of staff just hours before. Scaramucci was hired on 21 July, a move reportedly opposed by former White House secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned the same day. A Long Island native with an affinity for the spotlight, Scaramucci had long drawn comparisons to Trump himself. Though Scaramucci became a critical fundraiser for the Trump campaign, it was not his first choice. Before he joined the campaign, Scaramucci called Trump "anti-American" and "another hack politician". "I'll tell you who he's gonna be president of, you can tell Donald I said this: the Queens County Bullies Association," Scaramucci said during a segment on Fox Business in August 2015. The Australian government "dumped so much fucking money" on a company behind a taxpayer-funded campaign to deter asylum seekers arriving by boat that it made more than US$277,000 in profit for three days' work, the Guardian can reveal. The Singapore-based company Statt Consulting has been paid at least $15m between 2011 and 2017 by Australian taxpayers to place advertising in Afghanistan and Pakistan aimed at persuading would-be asylum seekers not to attempt to travel to Australia. An email from October 2013 shows Rene Le Cussan, a director of Statt Consulting, discussed the withdrawal of company dividends for herself and other directors. Le Cussan wrote: "Since we are being honest about biases, mine are... 1, customs has dumped so much fucking money on us in the last few months that I feel it is the most likely time we are going to be able to take dividends. Including the fact that we just made an extra USD 277,000 profit yesterday for literally 3 days work." Defence has known of potential dangers with its use of firefighting foam at a Queensland army base for more than two decades, a class action alleges. This month 450 people from the small town of Oakey, just west of Toowoomba, launched a class action against the defence department in the federal court. For about 40 years, Defence used firefighting foam containing two chemicals now known to share a probable link with cancer and other illnesses which spread from the Oakey base, leaching into groundwater. Defence began to phase out its most toxic foam product in 2004, but lawyers running the class action claim the department knew of the potential risks of using firefighting foam at the site much earlier. A majority of voters think economic inequality in Australia is increasing, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. The survey of 1,805 voters showed a slim majority, 52% of the sample, believed economic inequality in Australia was on the rise – including 43% of Coalition voters, and, interestingly, 55% of voters planning to support someone other than the major parties. The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has spent the past couple of weeks speaking about rising inequality and championing progressive changes to the tax system. The survey showed 82% support for forcing multinational companies to pay a minimum tax rate on Australian earnings, 61% support for increasing the income tax rate for high earners, 71% support for a "Buffett rule" forcing wealthy people to pay a minimum 30% tax rate, and 86% support for a measure to stop companies and wealthy people using legal loopholes in minimise tax payments by sending funds offshore. A UK airport has declared a "Marmite amnesty", after the popular savoury spread was found to be the number one branded food item confiscated from passengers' hand luggage. In an unusual move, London City airport is offering travellers the chance to swap any jars of Marmite exceeding the permitted 100ml size for a travel-friendly 70g miniature. Marmite is in the top 10 overall for confiscated items. The most commonly confiscated item is snow globes, followed by jams and spreads and toiletries. Sport England have defeated South Africa by another almighty margin – 239 runs – to lead the Test series 2-1. A hat-trick from Moeen Ali, the first at the Oval in 100 Tests and the first by an England men's team spinner since 1938, finished off South Africa. For South Africa there was very little to cheer except the innings of Dean Elgar, who made a defiant 136 and shrugged off the pain of a suspected broken finger, saying "X-rays are a waste of money". The fourth and final Test begins at Old Trafford on Friday. The FFA Cup draw has thrown up a classic David and Goliath encounter between part-time players from the tropics and the three-time A-League champions. Helen Davidson reports from Darwin, where minnows Rovers take on the might of Sydney FC tomorrow night.
Thinking time |
It is easy to be beguiled by someone else's passion and Les Murray, the broadcaster who died at the age of 71 on Monday, managed to sweep up so many of us in his – football. Since Murray first arrived on our screens in a short-lived Channel Ten weekly football show, Australia's football landscape has changed markedly, as the country found room for a new national league, an attempt, if not a seamlessly successful one, to take football in this country into a new era. Australians remain more than ever a nation of car lovers, the latest census of car ownership released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals. The latest snapshot comes at a time where a record number of new cars are being sold, and suggests consumers remain willing to splurge on a new car even in light of record low wages growth. Greg Jericho explores why. You've probably seen My Brilliant Career, but have you heard of Starstruck? Gillian Armstrong's second feature was worlds away from her first: a 1980s rock musical extravaganza that featured Jo Kennedy in her debut role, music from Tim Finn, kitsch and gaudy set design from Rocky Horror's Brian Thomson, and the first screen credit of Geoffrey Rush. Restored by the National Film & Sound Archive, Starstruck is "a neon lightning bolt wrapped up in a gaudy tourist tea-towel and decoupaged with love letters to a skewiff memory of Hollywood". Screening soon at the Melbourne film festival. Media roundup The Adelaide Advertiser says the former Anglican archbishop of Adelaide Ian George is at the centre of a police investigation over the role he played in disgraced St Peter's College priest John Mountford fleeing Australia in 1992. The former headmaster and his deputy are also being investigated. Ahead of today's report on sexual assault on campus, the Canberra Times speaks to Codie Bell, a former ANU student. Months after reporting a sexual assault, when no action had been taken by the university, Bell said she began to give up hope of ever finding justice. "They're not interested, they're not listening, they don't care about me or my story or anything," she said. Fairfax newspapers say one of the suspects in the weekend's alleged terrorism plot had family links to the aviation industry, and has mixed with a network of pilots and airline workers.
Coming up The Australian Human Rights Commission releases its much-anticipated report into sexual assault on university campuses at a national media conference today. Follow our live coverage from 9.30am. Support the Guardian It might take a minute to catch up on the news, but good journalism takes time and money. If you already support Guardian Australia, your generosity is invaluable. If not, and you value what we do, please become a Supporter today. Thanks. |
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Anthony Scaramucci has made a hasty exit. 
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